Players' lawyers arrive in Minnesota to meet judge

NFL attorney David Boies, center at microphone, addresses the media outside a federal courthouse after the NFL antitrust lockout hearing Wednesday, April 6, 2011, in St. Paul, Minn. A group of players is asking a judge to issue a preliminary injunction on the lockout the owners imposed after talks

/ AP

NFL attorney David Boies, center at microphone, addresses the media outside a federal courthouse after the NFL antitrust lockout hearing Wednesday, April 6, 2011, in St. Paul, Minn. A group of players is asking a judge to issue a preliminary injunction on the lockout the owners imposed after talks on a new collective bargaining agreement broke off three weeks ago. (AP Photo/Jim Mone)

NFL attorney David Boies, center at microphone, addresses the media outside a federal courthouse after the NFL antitrust lockout hearing Wednesday, April 6, 2011, in St. Paul, Minn. A group of players is asking a judge to issue a preliminary injunction on the lockout the owners imposed after talks on a new collective bargaining agreement broke off three weeks ago. (AP Photo/Jim Mone) (/ AP)

JON KRAWCZYNSKI, AP Sports Writer

Lawyers for the NFL players arrived at federal court in Minneapolis to meet with the judge who will oversee court-ordered mediation with the league.

Lawyers representing the players will see U.S. Magistrate Judge Arthur Boylan on Tuesday. The NFL's attorneys are to meet with Boylan on Wednesday before the sides begin mediation Thursday.

U.S. District Court Judge Susan Richard Nelson on Monday ordered mediation for the league and players. Nelson is still considering a request from the players to lift the lockout.

It had been a month since the lockout began. And until now, there hadn't been any talks between the league and its players.

The sides tried mediation before, negotiating for 16 days in Washington with Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service director George Cohen. Those talks broke off March 11, and the old collective bargaining agreement expired.

The NFL Players Association dissolved that day, saying it no longer would represent players in bargaining under labor law. That allowed players - including MVP quarterbacks Tom Brady and Peyton Manning - to file a class-action antitrust suit against the league in federal court here.

The owners then locked out the players, creating the NFL's first work stoppage since 1987.

Nelson ordered both sides to keep the mediation confidential. The players got their wish, with the talks held under court supervision and not in the collective bargaining setting.

NFLPA spokesman George Atallah declined comment as did NFL spokesman Greg Aiello. Neither party would divulge who will be attending the sessions.

At a hearing last week about the injunction request, Nelson urged the sides to get "back to the table" and said negotiations should take place at "not the players' table, not the league's table, but a neutral table, if you will."

The next day, the players and owners both expressed a willingness to talk, though they disagreed on where and how they wanted to do it. The players said they were willing to engage in mediation overseen by Nelson. The NFL said it wanted to resume talks with Cohen in Washington.

Nelson said at the hearing she would take "a couple of weeks" to rule on the injunction. On Monday, she noted that her order to resume mediation "will not have the effect of a stay on this litigation," and that she would rule "in due course."

Nelson's order called for legal counsel for the parties "as well as a party representative having full authority" to attend. She also said that participation in the mediation "and any communications conveyed between the parties in this process, shall not be admitted or used against any party in any other proceeding or forum, for any purpose."

That would appear to address the players' concern that any talks held after the dissolution of the union could be construed as collective bargaining - and thus bolster the NFL's claim that the dissolution was a "sham" merely intended to strengthen the players' position at the bargaining table.

Last week, NFL executive vice president Jeffrey Pash sent a letter to a lawyer representing the players, James Quinn, with a copy going to Nelson. Pash wrote that the league is "prepared to give reasonable and appropriate assurances" that the players' legal position - not a union protected by labor laws but a group of players suing under antitrust laws - would not be compromised through any new talks.

Nelson's order referred to the mediation "as a form of Alternative Dispute Resolution," a legal term for the revival of negotiations. Perhaps it will lead to some real progress.

"Sometimes there is a place in negotiation for changing the context, changing the city, changing the mediator or changing the atmosphere, but who knows where this will lead?" said analyst, Jonathan Rubin, a Washington trial attorney and antitrust expert.

Nelson also formally combined the lawsuits involving current and former players earlier Monday. Neither the Brady plaintiffs nor the NFL objected to combining the cases, according to a court document.